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What is special about this moment in CU ������ý����’s outreach and community engagement work?��

Senior Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives Ann Schmiesing:��

This is a transformative moment for CU ������ý����’s longstanding commitment to outreach and community engagement. Driven by Chancellor Schwartz’s priority to strengthen relationships with Colorado communities, the Chancellor’s Task Force on Outreach (CFTO) set forth a vision in August 2025 that shines a light on the excellent outreach and engagement work already happening across campus and identifies new opportunities to increase strategic direction and coordination. Outreach and engagement at CU ������ý���� are multifaceted, encompassing engaged scholarship, external partnerships, student recruitment, alumni relations, government relations, and more, and these activities are deeply woven into the university’s identity. We’ve taken a meaningful step toward realizing the CTFO’s compelling vision by forming the new Office of Outreach and Community Engagement, CU ������ý����’s strategic hub for coordinating and supporting campus engagement with external communities. By focusing on teamwork and expanding the lens of what engagement means, CU ������ý���� is operating with shared campus and community principles, centering data-informed outreach, civically engaged students, and its mission as Colorado’s flagship public research university.����

These principles have guided Community Engagement Week, which was already in the planning stages before the CTFO finalized its recommendations. Energized by the CTFO’s vision and the campus’s celebration of its 150th anniversary, Community Engagement Week is taking place at an ideal time. ��It offers a powerful opportunity for us to further enhance and highlight our commitment to community engagement –specifically engaged scholarship—by bringing together engaged scholars, professionals and community partners to learn, collaborate and build momentum for future work.����

How does outreach and community engagement work support other campus priorities and goals? How can this work best express our campus values?��

Associate Vice Chancellor or Leadership Support and Programming David L. Humphrey

Our actions as a university are inseparable from our identity, and outreach and community engagement are central to how CU ������ý���� lives its mission. As Colorado’s flagship public university, outreach enables us to share the intellectual, cultural and creative energies of our campus – cutting-edge research, excellent teaching and transformative student experiences – with the communities that shape and support us.��

Community Engagement is an expression of who we aspire to be: a university rooted in learning, reciprocity and relationship-building. It connects academic knowledge with lived experience, honors community wisdom and strengthens trust across the state. Grounded in CU ������ý����’s vision to “authentically reflect and serve Colorado,” this work uplifts diverse voices and lived experiences, advances the public good, and prepares students to engage as thoughtful, civically-engaged leaders.

Outreach and engagement also deepen campus priorities by enriching student success through experiential and community-engaged learning; expanding the reach, relevance and responsibility of research; advancing inclusive excellence; and cultivating partnerships that respond to community-identified needs. This work strengthens the university’s commitments to workforce development, statewide service, leadership capacity-building and organizational effectiveness – ensuring CU ������ý����’s impact is both locally rooted and nationally resonant.

At its best, outreach is carried out with rigor, responsiveness and an explicit commitment to equity. Effective outreach is crafted with intention, informed by multiple forms of knowledge – including community memory and wisdom, cultural and historical context, and qualitative and quantitative insights and metrics – and supported by transparent practices and shared accountability. When grounded in long-term, co-created partnerships, outreach becomes a way of building capacity across the university and within the communities we walk alongside. Approached with collaboration, cultural responsiveness and reciprocity, outreach reflects our deepest values and embodies our commitment to continuous learning, public impact and shared flourishing. ������

Who is Community Engagement Week for and what programming will be available to them?��

PACES Director for Strategic Initiatives Katie Kleinhesselink:

Community Engagement Week is for anyone who thinks higher education has a role in solving public problems and addressing community-identified priorities through teaching, research and creative work. PACES has worked hard to ensure that there’s something for everyone including faculty, staff, students and community partners. Additionally, all of Tuesday’s events and the Thursday evening panel are also open to the public so that community members can connect with the ideas, people, and partnerships that shape CU ������ý����’s engagement work.

The week focuses on community-engaged scholarship, which at its core is teaching, research and creative work done for and with communities in ways that are collaborative, respectful and genuinely useful. The programming reflects that spirit. Participants can attend introductory and advanced workshops on community-engaged teaching, partnership development and ethical research practices. There are sessions on writing and publishing engagement-based scholarship, navigating reappointment and promotion as an engaged scholar, and supporting graduate students who want their work to make a public impact.

The schedule also includes a campuswide showcase, a funding workshop for public scholarship, individualized consultations, a full-day partnership retreat using the Transformational Relationship Evaluation Scale (TRES) framework, and a reflective session on civic joy, hope and love. It is a week designed to build skills, spark new collaborations and help people see what is possible when universities and communities learn together.��

Two preeminent scholars in the engagement scholarship field, Patti Clayton and Diane Doberneck, will play a significant role during the week. How so, and what’s special about this opportunity for our CU ������ý���� community?��

PACES Director for Strategic Initiatives Katie Kleinhesselink:

Having Patti and Diane with us for the week is a big deal—a rare opportunity for people across the university to learn from two of the most respected scholars in community engagement. Both have shaped national conversations about engaged scholarship for decades, and their shared commitment to accessible and collaborative learning makes their presence especially meaningful for our campus and community partners.

Patti will offer workshops on community-engaged teaching and practices that support strong, equitable partnerships. She’ll also facilitate a full-day retreat for university folks and their community partners on the Transformational Relationship Evaluation Scale (TRES), an evidence-based framework that helps partners reflect on how they share power, make decisions, communicate and grow together. I’mespecially excited for her session about cultivating civic joy, hope and love—an urgently needed conversation in this moment.

Diane will lead sessions and provide individual consultations on community-engaged research; publishing engaged scholarship; navigating reappointment and promotion as an engaged scholar; and supporting graduate students who want their work to make a public impact. She is also an expert in designing policies that recognize and reward high-quality engagement and will be available to consult with departments interested in revising their RPT guidelines.

What makes this week so special for CU ������ý���� is the chance to learn from two leaders whose expertise spans the full ecosystem of community-engaged scholarship. Their combined presence brings national-level insight directly to our campus as we renew and strengthen our public mission. Patti and Diane’s involvement creates a meaningful opportunity for all of us—faculty, staff, students and community partners—to build shared skills, deepen relationships and imagine new possibilities for community engagement.��

The week sounds like a nice blend of past, present and future, as well as local, state and national. How does CU ������ý���� fit into the wider field of engagement scholarship?��

PACES Executive Director David Meens:

I love this question. CU ������ý���� has a fascinating history of public and community-engaged work that deserves to be better known today. From the institution's founding—because of a distinct mix of local philanthropy, state support and a federal land grant—to its statewide cooperative extension work throughout much of the 20th century, our public service legacy represents a fairly unique approach to direct community engagement alongside leadership in research and education.

As the university grew and diversified through the creation of CU System campuses and expanded partnerships with federal agencies, our direct community engagement naturally evolved and took different forms. Our statewide presence shifted during this period of institutional growth and changing priorities.

Community Engagement Week, and the entire sesquicentennial anniversary, offer a wonderful opportunity to reflect on this history, revisit our institutional values related to service, and re-envision what our public mission requires going forward. National prestige and deep commitment to local and state-level engagement are not in conflict. We are exceptionally well positioned—and Chancellor Schwartz and other leaders like Senior Vice Chancellor Schmiesing are fully committed—to once again integrate these two aspects of our identity, ensuring our research and educational excellence directly benefit all the residents of our state through innovative community engagement and public service.

This is the combination that I believe will define the next-generation public flagship university that can meet the moment and shape the future. As a broad-access institution with a nearly unparalleledresearch portfolio, CU ������ý���� is uniquely positioned to lead the way—and Community Engagement Week is an important step in building the relationships, momentum and shared vision to make this future real.

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More about the Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship.